Behind the Battle Line
After the target we took another hit and lost another engine on the right side. At this point we could no longer keep up with the formation and therefore drifted back. The two surviving engines were coaxed to give their all. The strain must have been too much as the engines were heating up and we were still losing altitude. We went down to the cloud tops with the intention of entering the clouds if a Jerry showed up. It wasn’t long though that we were losing altitude again and it became evident that we wouldn’t make it back. Earl Greenstreet, the pilot, had me and the navigator, David Roche, come up from the nose and go back to the radio room to get ready for bailout. No alarm came even though we were getting awful close to the ground. Suddenly the copilot, Bill Guion, came back screaming,“Didn’t you hear the bell? Bail out.” The bailout alarm system failed because it was damaged by flak. After the gunners bailed out, Earl realized we were too low, so decided to make a forced landing. The area ahead was all heavily wooded, whereas we had passed over much clearer ground before, so, we made a 180 degree turn going back searching for friendlier ground. After awhile, the decreasing engine power and the friendlier looking ground ahead dictated a set down. I was in the radio room bracing myself with my feet up against the radar unit. We touched down with what I thought was a smooth landing, but, suddenly over an apparent rise, we were airborne again. This time we came down with a hell of a plop. The radar unit went flying through the roof breaking off a tooth as it hit me with a hell of a slap. When we settled down, I remember going out of the radio room through the hole in the roof. We all four got out safely and not knowing where we were, took a westward heading and looked for cover to hide during the daylight. The first evening we were hiding below a ledge of a bomb crater and heard German voices come nearby without seeing us. We realized that we were on the German held side of the battle line. We traveled at night and hid during daylight making use of our little compass packed in our escape kit for navigation. This went on for several days and we were getting hungry. There was shelling going on apparently from the Allies side to our German side. At one shelling impact we found a dead rabbit. I was so hungry, I skinned the rabbit and ate some of it raw. Bill, my copilot, also joined in, but the navigator and pilot would have none of it. We finally crawled up to a stream with it being evident from the gunfire that the Americans were nearby, but there were two German guards on our side that would surely see us if we started across the stream. After some contemplation of our situation it became apparent that we would have to do away with the guards. We decided that the copilot would take out the one on the left and I would take the one on the right. On signaling each other we made our move and did the required job. A new fear came over us; if we start across the stream wouldn’t our own troops be apt to shoot us not knowing who we were? We had to take that chance. We started across and almost immediately heard a “Halt”. We yelled back “American flyers”, then we heard. “Come forward”. We advanced to find a small scouting group of GIs. We were all piled into a jeep and headed back, as rifle fire came our way hitting the jeep with no apparent damage. We were taken to a command post where we stayed for the night. The next day we went into a small town and I found a small church with the service being conducted in Latin. This was very impressive to me because I could understand and follow, being a Catholic and having had the experience of Latin services. It was very awe inspiring to me, that I had this common bond in a completely foreign land. We were then sent to Paris and found a quartermaster who equipped us with jumper’s boots replacing our heavy fleece lined flying boots. We made quite a site walking around town with the high top boots and flying gear. After enjoying Paris, including the “Follies,” and many other impressive sights, we were flown back to our base, where it was confirmed, that our folks back home had been sent telegrams of our being “Missing in Action”. The gunners on the crew that bailed out did so successfully except for the waist gunner, Thomas Eason, who was killed, possibly because of the low altitude, without enough time for his chute to open. The survivors had all landed on the American side of the line before our aircraft turned back east to find a smoother crash area. I urgently wanted to let my folks know I was OK but could not get permission to do so from the base. That evening I had to sneak off base and go to an English telegraph office to send my parents a wire. It cost me several English pounds. On the 15th of February I made my next mission to continue my tour of duty after an absence of 26 days. Through the grace of God, I was able to complete the rest of my tour. George Arnold Editor’s note: George has been coming to the Museum every year for several months at a time for the last ten years or so. We appreciate and look forward to his support. |
On the 20th of January 1945, we were on our third mission, the target being Heilbronn, Gr. marshalling yards. We were briefed on a relatively easy mission as far as the flak was concerned. On approaching the target, the flak became very intense. Apparently the antiaircraft guns had moved in since the last reconnaissance. We took a hit and lost one engine on our left side but we continued in formation for our scheduled bomb drop.